Puerto Rico Was Denied The Same Shipping Waiver Texas And Florida Got For Hurricane Relief [View all]

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The Trump administration has denied a request to grant a waiver of the Jones Act for Puerto Rico to ease the shipping of food, fuel and other hurricane relief supplies despite previous waivers earlier this year, citing a government assessment that determined the island’s ports are too damaged to handle an increased import capacity.

The Jones Act is a shipping law which, briefly, mandates that any shipping of people or cargo between two U.S. ports must be done with an American ship to avoid tax and tariff penalties. It was passed shortly after World War I to help sustain the American shipbuilding industry after devastating losses in the war.

The law was recently temporarily waived following Hurricane Harvey and Irma destruction in the southeast U.S. to help prevent widespread fuel shortages, but a similar waiver has been denied following the damage to the island of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.

Here’s more on the denied waiver from Reuters:

On Monday, U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez and seven other representatives asked Elaine Duke, acting head of Homeland Security, to waive the nearly 100-year-old shipping law for a year to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria. Gregory Moore, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, an office of Homeland Security, said in a statement that an assessment by the agency showed there was “sufficient capacity” of U.S.-flagged vessels to move commodities to Puerto Rico.

Reuters.http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/352597-us-wont-waive-shipping-restrictions-for-puerto-rico-relief